Drumroll Please!!!

I'm ready to do the big unveiling of my newly renovated quilt studio!! Mind you, I'm not ready to show off the new bedroom, just the studio! lol

But first, I want to share some interesting statistics about what has happened.

Days elapsed since idea was first broached on blog - 175
Days since work was started - 103
Days since I started working only on the bedrooms - 46
Rooms where painting occurred - 7 (wow!!)
Gallons of paint used - umpteen
Gallons of spackle used - almost as much
Old outlets and switches swapped for fresh, clean ones - 15
  Ones done by me - 10
Trips to Home Depot - countless
Trips to the dumpster - at least 5
Times I borrowed my neighbor, Aaron - 2 (well, 3 if you count the consultation)
Number of naps taken on the luxurious new mattress - just by me? Or do the dogs' naps count?
Breakdowns had during the process - 1 (yep, just the one!)
Number of times Maxie had breakdowns - too many to count (The poor dog just couldn't deal with all the work going on.)

Knowing that I have a great space that makes me want to sew... PRICELESS!!!

And without further ado...

Here is the door to the studio and the wall that is to the left of the door. My sewing desk is partially in front of the door, but until I start sewing at it, I am not sure if I will need to adjust it's location. It works where it is for now. And I put the rocking chair in front of the TV by the window and while that just feels awkward to me, there is not really another place for it.



Here is the Stash Wall! I was worried that the TV would be sitting too low , but it is at a great height for sitting at the desk or on the bed.



The hope chest is between the door to the bathroom and the closet and I hung my thread rack and 2 ruler holders above it. It's nice to have all of that out of the way! There are still some spools of thread left over and I have a smaller thread holder, but I am not sure if I want to hang it up as well. I also have some current projects on the hope chest. I think that the chest will still be my staging area for now.



Looking into the closet, I have some scrap containers on the floor by the wall because they wouldn't fit on the bookcases or under the bed. It was actually my nephew's idea to put them in the closet! And of course, the GO is in there, too. At least until I can find better spots for them.



Here is the other side of the room taken from in front of the TV. The massive design wall and the oh-so-comfortable and way too tall bed!



And of course, room for the iron and ironing board! Can you tell that Max loves having his own bed in the studio? Maisy is just 'meh' about it, I think. :-D



The only thing missing is window treatments and a dust ruffle on the bed to hide the clutter underneath. But I still need to decide on what I want the window treatments to look like before Granma and I can make them.

So.... What do you think???

My plans for today

The replacement board for the third bookcase showed up last night and I got the case together.



Can you guess what I will be doing today?

Also, my aunt and cousin are coming over this afternoon/evening so we can go out to a local Mexican joint for dinner. I will be putting my cousin to work on an arts and crafts project. Expect pictures later!! I can't wait!

Fabric stash progress

For the past few nights, I have been working on getting my fabric stash on my new shelves. I finished up tonight on the fabric that was folded in the other room and put into boxes and with a stack that wouldn't fit on the shelves in the other room.



I'm so happy to be able to see my stash now!! You can see that there are some boards on the left leaning up against the wall. I bought a third bookcase and one of the large sides was damaged so I am waiting on a replacement board. My UFOs and kits will go on that bookcase.... I hope!

I also still have a shelf or two under the TV that is just holding miscellaneous items right now. I'm not sure what I will put there, but I am sure that I can find something!

Tonight, I am going to tackle this stack. This was to the right of my chair in the old set up and I would just toss my unused fabric on the pile. I will probably be breaking out my iron and GO to cut up the scraps that are too small for the shelves. Although, I will probably just throw those scraps back in the bin to save for a rainy day job.



And Maisy was happy to find her doggie bed in the bedroom and after she nosed around in it for a few minutes, I brought it back to its rightful spot under the sewing table. Then, both dogs enjoyed a rest.



PS for those of you not in the know, the show that I am watching is Flipping Out that is on Bravo. Love love love Jeff Lewis!!! And Jenni! In spite of what Stacy thinks.

Things are progressing

But I think that I might be a little short on my shelf space.




I got 3 bookcases and I have room for a fourth. Right now, I am just trying to put things on the shelves to get them out of the way so that I can put the furniture where it needs to go.

But this is what I have left to put on these bookcases....

These boxes hold fabric yardage.



Of course there is all of these UFOs and Kits.



And I mustn't forget this stuff either...



Yeah, I think that I need another bookcase... sigh

On the bright side... The rooms are painted and the paint and supplies have been put away! And we are so close to having a spot for Max to curl up in while I organize and put things away! That is a must right now!

Another step done

Tonight, I put some new knowledge to work and changed out the light switches and electrical outlets in the new quilt studio. I also did one outlet in the kitchen, but it was such a pain in the butt that I stopped.





I really like the way the white outlets and switches look against the new wall color!

And here is part of the garbage from tonight's job.




I need to pick up a few more switches for other spots in the house and I will work on changing them out very soon! It's awesome to be able to do things for myself like this!

Bedroom set up

One of the goals for me for this week was to get the bedroom furniture into the bedroom and out of the studio so that I could make room to paint the studio. I started with the dresser and the bed and once I moved the chest and short bookshelf into the bedroom, I knew that the set up had to change.

Sorry for the fuzzy picture here, but I can't retake it now. The bed was originally against the back wall with little space to walk next to it on the right because it was close to the wall and on the left because the dresser was rightthere and I was catching the corner of the dresser on my hip when I walked past. This also took up a lot of wall space where other pieces of furniture could go.



And here is the chest on the left side of the picture and the dresser on the right. The chest sticks out in front of the window a good 2 inches. This just wasn't going to work for me.



So last night, instead of finishing the prep work on the studio, I rearranged the furniture.



I was worried that the foot of the bed was going to be to close to the wall, but it's not and I can easily walk past to get to the other furniture.

And this frees up the space that is directly opposite the door to the room for the short bookshelf. This was a piece that was made by my great granpa so I am very happy to be able to display in a nice way. I also have lots of doo dads that I will be able to display on the shelves as well.



And here is the view from the back of the room. I left enough room by the bed for my bedside table. I also have a pair of wall mounted swing arm lights that I will be able to put on each side of the bed. I'm going to make sure the bed is where I want it before putting up the lights though. And I want to get neutral light shades as well.



I think that this arrangement will work much better and the dogs were pretty happy with it when we went to bed last night. They can look out the window at the trees and wildlife all night.



Of course, they are happy to have some cuddle time, too!

Monthly Accomplishments - July 2011

There was a lot of time spent on the room switch and renovations this month. I can’t remember the last time I touched fabric or my sewing machine! I have fabric that I have received and not counted on the stash report and I have projects that are ready to be sewn that are just sitting in piles. And I am way behind on blogging! lol

So here is everything that has happened this month.

1. Put the binding on the Flamingo quilt 
2. Put the binding on the Maxine quilt 
3. Took Maisy to the vet for her eye issue which is all better now with no lingering affects.
4. Sewed Midget block 16 
5. Cut out fabric for 4 mini projects. No progress made after that so no pics.
6. Then, I decided to work on the room swap and just get ‘er done so I moved everything out of the new bedroom and worked on the walls.
7. With a little knitting thrown in for some sanity
8. And then, I painted! For those that may only be a little impressed, I also painted the ceiling. Lots of work went into this room to get it looking this good!

And I read. A lot!

1. Midnight Show Murders - Al Roker and Dick Lochte
2. By a Spider’s Thread - Laura Lippman
3. Threading the Needles - Marie Bostwick
4. No Good Deeds - Laura Lippman
5. A Turn in the Road - Debbie Macomber
6. Another Thing to Fall - Laura Lippman
7. Missing Persons - Clare O'Donohue
8. The Girl in the Green Raincoat - Laura Lippman
9. Sizzling Sixteen - Janet Evanovich
10. The Bishop's Daughter - Wanda E Brunstetter

I’m working on getting the studio in order to get it painted this weekend. So close!!!

Halfway done!

I have finished the painting and most of the clean up in the new bedroom. Last night, I put everything back in the closet after I purged a bit. Everything fits in the closet now nice and neat. I can't wait until I can say the same about the rest of the house!

Here are the pictures of the room. The color seems to be more gold in person. I really like how it looks with the new vent cover and electrical outlets and switches on the wall. I can't wait until the all of the molding is replaced as well, but that is some time off.

The color was from Home Depot (not sure of the line, but it is not Martha) and is called Sensible Hue. I thought it would be a sensible color to use! :-D



The purple dress was a bridesmaid dress from 10 years ago. I think that I am going to take it to a consignment shop in town and if they won't take it, it's going to Goodwill.



I need to vacuum the carpet again and then pile all of the tools and supplies in a corner of the hallway and out of the way.

Tonight, I need to watch some shows on the DVR so that it can tape the new shows this week. I was going to make a run to Goodwill to drop off some other things, but I think I will hold off on that until tomorrow night. I am going to start organizing things to move the furniture into the bedroom. Hopefully, I can start with that tomorrow night!

The dogs have to follow me in there because they are afraid that I am going to start painting and ignoring them again or something.

Quick update!

I am giving up on painting for the night and I thought I would post a quick update.

Yesterday, I got the entire ceiling painted with 2 coats and just about gave myself a heat stroke. It was HOT in the small room in the afternoon with the sun shining in. And I had to turn the ceiling fan off to paint around it. I dropped to the floor once the fan was back on to cool off and I just couldn't get cool enough. I finally got the rest of the ceiling painted and quickly cleaned up and then crashed with the dogs for a 2.5 hour nap.

As soon as I woke up, I was very sore. I have been popping Advil to help with the soreness and today I used some muscle pain cream which helped a lot as did the mid afternoon nap!

I decided today that I would take things easy until it cooled off in the room. I just got done with cutting in on the walls with the first coat of paint on everything except where the walls meet the ceiling. I even pulled everything out of the closet to paint in there. Tomorrow, I hope to finish cutting everything in with 2 coats and then paint. I wasn't too sure about the color, but I think it is growing on me.

That or I am just happy to be getting rid of the nastiness that is the walls!

All things considered, I don't think that I will have all of the furniture moved into the room by the end of the weekend. But I think that I will be able to move it in piece by piece next week after work. And I was hoping to get the big bedroom in shape to paint next weekend, but I might push that off another week. Time will tell.

Hopefully, I will have pictures tomorrow!

An update

I am ready to paint! I painted KILZ on the window and ceiling spots and I am ready to paint the ceiling.





Since I haven't set up my sewing area and I have been trying to relax a little when I haven't been working on the room, I decided to pick up my socks that were abandoned and I have made great progress on them. The heel flap and heel turns are done. I think that I am liking the knitting two at a time!



Tonight, I am going to pick up the stitches along the side and maybe start knitting the gussets. Or maybe I will just pick up the side stitches and then read a little. lol

Total Bummer!!

Well, I was hoping to have most of the walls completed by now, but I ran into a snag. This is the water damage area by the window. I tried to clean the drywall up, but it sort of started flaking off and I stopped. I consulted with a couple of guys (Regina's hubby and my dad) via these pictures and they both agree that the drywall needs to be removed and replaced.

After having a mini break down with my mom about the delay and breaking a candle holder last night that brought on a Scarlett O'Hara moment (I'll think about it all tomorrow... After all, tomorrow is another day.), I'm feeling much better. I have a plan of action and I'm hopeful that it will work out for painting next week.

The empty (mostly) room

From the doorway



From the corner where bed frame is



One area of water damage to be repaired a little better. This was like this when I moved in. The roof had been repaired.



And water damage by one of the windows. This is the place that really scares me to repair by myself.



And some other scuff marks left by the previous owners.





I swear the people before me were animals or something! Oh the things we had to deal with moving weekend. What a mess!! Great deal on the house though!!

Right now, I just finished vacuuming the carpet and I am about to grab the carpet cleaner and get started on that. I have found some mouse turds from the unwanted guest Christmas of 2009 and it seems it spent most of it's time in this room. I will feel so much better vanquishing all evidence of the little Mickey wannabe!

Wish me luck!!

**UPDATE!!!**

No luck needed! I am done with the carpet cleaning and just need to clean up the cleaner and take it back to the basement for now. This is the first time that I have used the cleaner even though I have had it for years. For some reason, I thought it would be very hard to use, but it was extremely easy!! And once I get some more cleaner, I know that I can clean up some spots on the first floor... as soon as the mess on the second is under control!

Progress...

Since my change of plans on Monday/Tuesday, I have been formulating my plan of attack for moving my sewing area to the first floor and emptying out the spare bedroom. I made a huge list of things that would need to be done and I planned on starting on the list on Thursday night after work because Wednesday night was the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild meeting.

When Thursday came around, Barb told me that she would be working at the quilt shop and I figured I would stop by to see her and pick up additional fabrics that I would need for the bug jar quilt. It turned out that not all of the fabrics that I had originally picked were 'boyish.' With that mission accomplished, I was pretty tired when I got home so I probably went to bed early.

Friday night, I came home from work and got started! First, I had to straighten up the first floor and do a couple of loads of laundry. I'm sure that this happens to everyone - once you start straightening things up, you find more that you have to do. So I really only got my machine, the iron and ironing board moved to the first floor last night.

Today, I was all ready to start tackling my old desk and files when I was sent back to bed with dizziness that I can only assume was a migraine. This is the second Saturday in a row that this has happened and I was back in bed for 3 or 4 hours again before I was able to sit up without feeling like the room was spinning. Kind of annoying!

Once I was feeling up to it, I finished straightening up the first floor, the master bedroom and the upstairs hallway and I finished moving the rest of my sewing things to the first floor. It's not set up, but that is something that I can do after work next week.

I also got my grocery list and coupons in order to hit a Mega Sale tomorrow. It's the end of the first week in a two week sale, but I'm hoping to be able to make it to the store and home tomorrow without incident. And that the shelves will be well stocked!

After that, I will begin emptying the spare bedroom into this space.Of course, the laptop will be moved. lol



And I sure wish that these little boogers could help!!

Change of plans

After the hot and humid weekend that we just had, I realized that it could be the heat that is inhibiting my sewing productiveness. A couple of summers ago, I moved my sewing area to the first floor due to the heat and it was a nice change of pace. I am now thinking that I should do it again. It was much cooler on the first floor than it was in the bedroom for most of the weekend.

All of this got me to thinking that it would be so much easier for me to move my sewing area to the first floor, move the things from the spare bedroom into the sewing area in the master bedroom and then start working on the walls in the spare bedroom. The biggest advantage is that I wouldn't have to move everything down the stairs and then back up the stairs during the hottest months of the year!

If I do change my plans in this manner, it also means that I can start moving things to the first floor almost immediately and then start unloading things from the spare bedroom soon after that. I won't have to worry about cleaning up anything on the first floor which is what I have been waiting to do for the past month. Well, not waiting so much as stalling.

So starting tomorrow night - not tonight as I am already starting to yawn and therefore need to head to bed - I am going to move things to the first floor so that I can sew and cut and prep when I have a chance. Once I have everything there, I will start moving things out of the spare bedroom so that I can start working on the walls!

My big push for this change is that I have a coupon for a local furniture store that expires in early to mid August. At least, I think it is in August. I thought I had printed the coupon so I need to find it again just to be sure.... Ok, I just found it and it is August 17. Anyway, I want to get the rooms in order so that I can buy a replacement mattress set for the day bed that will become the dogs' bed in the new quilting studio. So I want to try and have things mostly done by then so that I can move the new mattress set right into the new studio.

This is all just a long winded way of me saying that I haven't been sewing much. I did draw up 2 patterns in EQ last week, ordered some new fabric for one of the patterns and pressed some fabric to cut. I haven't done much cutting other than the bags that I want to get done. Those might be my first order of business when I get set up down stairs.

For now, I am not going to worry about the Tiny Tuesday or PIGS posts. I hope that you understand and I hope to get back to them very soon!

Wish me luck!! And if anyone wants to come and volunteer to help, I will take most of the help that I can get! :)

I leave you now with a picture of Maisy. She is doing 100% better and thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers!

A busy few days

It's been a busy week and hasn't been conducive to blogging. I still have to write my book reviews for Thursday and answer my PIGS question for the week. :)

Wednesday night, I went to my coupon class and learned so much! I have gotten permission to write a blog post and include the steps that we learned in the class. We also got a ton of coupons in a goodie bag for registering for the class!

After class, I went to my old friend Jodi's house and met her husband and kids. We made plans to get a group together to make up our coupon binders and talk coupons. I'm very excited!

Since I was out so late on Wednesday, I didn't do much on Thursday night except watch some TV and clip some coupons.

Friday was a big day for me! I took the day off from work to work on some home improvements. I had originally planned on painting in the upstairs bathroom, but I ended up working solely on the first floor in the kitchen, entry way and bathroom. I started by filling in nail holes in the trim that I was going to paint - I still need to fill in the holes in the wood quarter round trim. Next, I scrubbed the floor on my hands and knees and then washed the trim so it was ready for paint. While I was washing the trim, I went ahead and washed some spots on the wall and the place is really looking great!

Once I finished that, I ate lunch and headed out for some shopping and errands. I stopped at a couple of stores to pick up the deals for the week and I got lucky and got some great coupons at one of the grocery stores. I also picked up some Rubbermaid (sale) and Ziplock containers (with a coupon) and Ziplock bags (sale AND coupons!) so that I can start making meals and putting servings in the freezer for future use.



I also got the binder inserts that I need to make a coupon binder. Woo hoo!!



Best of all, I got paint at the Home Depot and there is a $5 rebate on Behr paint! I plan on going back tomorrow to get 3 gallons that I will need for the bedroom switch!



It was a great few days, but man was I pooped! I'm glad that I took the day off of work to get all of this done!

Monthly Accomplishments - March 2011

Another month is gone. It seems like time flies way too quickly sometimes! Next week is the quilt show that we have been planning on a year. I'm so excited that Regina is flying in and I get to meet Lazy Sister Sue as well as Marj and Carolyn!

Here is what I got done in March...

1. Got all the blocks cut out, sewn and pressed for the Star Struck quilt. It seems like I have been slaving over these for a long time.
2. Finished assembling the blocks on the Split Decision. Also sewed the blocks together for the center of the quilt.
3. Made 2 Midget blocks
4. Decided to change my bedrooms around a bit. I also picked out paint colors and have been eyeballing them for a while.
5. Picked fabrics for 2 new quilts and began cutting the fabric for one.
6. Helped my cousin with a school project - I got an "A," by the way!!
7. Quilted a baby quilt for Project Linus
8. Quilted a queen sized quilt for a friend from the Modern Quilt Guild. She loved it, by the way!
9. Pulled fabric for the next 7 Midget blocks

I also got a few books read. I haven't gotten all of the reviews written and on the blog, but I have links for the ones that I did write. Just in case you missed the review. :)

1. Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman
2. The Sleeping Beauty Proposal by Sarah Strohmeyer
3. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
4. The Union Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini
5. Devil's Food Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke
6. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

I plan on writing up reviews and having them post while everyone is here and we are at the quilt show. It's one of my goals for the next few days!

Not to bad for a month where I felt like I was being over run by the Star Struck blocks!

Busy Week!

I can't believe that I haven't posted since Monday! I'm only slightly behind on emails and blog reading, but I have no idea when I will get to it. So far, I have been running errands and working on house stuff every night this week and I still haven't gotten to sew much since Sunday. I even forgot to post on Tiny Tuesday - I have no new block to report, so there's your update!

Last night, my aunt and cousin came over to get help with an arts and crafts project for my cousin. I told them, "I better get an 'A,' dammit!" We had to cut a section of the poster board out and rig the Nemo fish to travel from behind the anemone to the shipwreck without touching it. It works and he spins his way around the scene! (Sorry for the dark pictures - they were taken with a camera phone and then text messaged to me.)

I have been meeting people this week to sell off the stamping and card stock as well. I also gave the totes that I had to my aunt for my cousin's half sister who scrapbooks. It's nice to get the stuff out of the house!

I also picked up a quilt tonight that I am quilting for a friend from the Modern Quilt Guild. I will be free motioning a design to look like water. It should go quickly and I am hoping to have it done this weekend.

Tomorrow night, I have plans to meet up with some old friends from high school for dinner and drinks. Saturday, I have to renew my tags for the car and get an estimate on repairing the car's bumper. After that, my neighbor is going to come over and do a walk through of the condo to see what he can help me fix to help me get closer to making the room change. He thinks that he can start working on things then, but we'll see what he says after the walk through. The dogs will be very excited because they love him!

So in between the errands and the cleaning and decluttering, I have managed to only sew 1 row together of the Split Decision. And I still haven't started cutting out the fabrics that I got last weekend. I'm not stressing about it though... There will be plenty of time to sew when I get the rooms changed and my sewing area set up perfectly in the new larger space!

I'm doing it!!

In yesterday's PIGS post, I shared my idea of moving my stash into my master and moving my bed and bedroom furniture into the spare bedroom permanently. After the few comments that I got and talking the options over with a gal at work and with my mom, I have decided to make the switch!

I think that one of the decided factors (other than talking to my mom) was Kate's comment: "You've given a lot of pros for moving your sleeping space and your stash space. The only con being making it happen." While Kate went on to say that I could make the change in steps by doing an hour a weekend or so, I think that I will do better in getting things in order and then taking a few days or a week off of work and getting the move done and everything organized in that time.

With that in mind, I think that I might have settled on a paint color for the two bedrooms and I am going to go to Home Depot to get some samples of paint to slap on the walls and see how I like it.

I also need to find out about getting the water damage fixed in the spare bedroom and the window sills replaced on all the windows. Mom thought this was something that Dad can handle if he happens to come North before my Move Date.

I'm also going to spend some time getting rid of unnecessary items from the bedrooms. Maybe a few trips to Goodwill for some drop offs. And while I am there, I might just have to look for a bookcase or something that would work in the sewing room. Something else I can work on is getting some of my UFOs out of the way. Although, with the promise of a fresh sewing area, I may end up waiting a while to sew anything!

One bonus that I didn't mention last night and that I am going to have to keep secret from the dogs is that I should be able to give them a nice view to the parking lot with the new set up! But let's keep that on the DL until I know for sure! ;)

I just can't contain my excitement!!